Here is an excerpt from Torin Feng - Book Five of The Dragons of Wulin that you may find interesting. The main character, Torin Feng, is studying at a southern praying mantis school. In this excerpt, his teacher is introducing him to the Eight Aspects of Speed.

I would like to read a discussion of speed from people outside my style.

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At length, he stopped and said, “You might think you have heard us talk a lot about speed, but you haven’t even begun to hear what you need to hear. The speed of your hands has increased, but you have no speed at all, as far as I’m concerned. I know that’s hard for you to hear, but speed is absolutely essential to us. Even the fastest war artists from other arts don’t understand our speed; perhaps even those from the other mantis schools. We are the fastest. For now, you only think of speed in one simple way, but there are Eight Aspects of Speed in our system.”

“Eight? I thought there were ten.”

“No. Eight. You are thinking of The Ten Concerns of the Mantis: speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, patience, precision, timing and perception. I am talking about the aspects of speed itself. The Eight Aspects of Speed are perception, initiation, change, decision, deception, repetition, recovery and mobility. Let me explain, because I know these terms mean nothing to your muddled little head.”

“Speed of Perception means, at the first level, seeing the enemy’s movement at its beginning. It means understanding that movement and its potential without letting your mind fixate on it. By not fixating, I mean just observing the totality of what is, and not believing that it cannot change. Anyway, Speed of Perception is important to battle because it tells you what is going on, and does so much faster than your conscious mind can think.

“Speed of Initiation means bringing your movements up to full speed in the first quarter inch of movement. Most fighters only achieve their full speed at the very end of their swing. What a waste. What a stupid, useless waste! It’s nothing but lazy effort that makes them so slow.” He grabbed the front of my tunic with one hand and shook me as he said, “Whatever speed you can achieve, get it in the first quarter inch of movement or don’t bother to swing at all! Do you hear me?”

“Yes,” I said, trying not to look as frightened as I felt.

“Letting go, he said, “There’s nothing I hate worse than lazy, sloppy efforts... even in my enemies.” After thinking for a bit, he continued, “Anyway, your efforts to achieve your full speed in the first quarter inch will vastly increase your full speed. Do you understand this?”

“Yes, sir.”

“But do you fully understand it?”

“No, sir.”

“Good answer. I’m glad you didn’t make me smack you for a stupid answer.” Then he laughed and said, “I’m sorry. Talking about that aspect of speed always gets my blood up.” He counted on his fingers, saying, “Let’s see, perception, initiation, oh, Speed of Change is next. Speed of Change means controlling your inertia and balance in order to be able to change your movements at an instant’s notice. No plan survives initial contact with the enemy. So you have to be able to change your efforts very quickly, or you will be caught off guard. Or you will be tricked and caught flat-footed. The basic first step on the path to Speed of Change is relaxation. See? Even now you are tensed up. I see it in your shoulders. I see it in your eyes. Yes, even in your mind you are tensed up. That’s why this great teaching is hard for you. Your mind and body are hard and stiff, so you cannot adapt to this new idea. But don’t worry your tensed-up little mind. We have drills that will cause you to learn.” He laughed and added, “Oh, yes. You will very much want to learn when that time comes.

“Next is Speed of Decision. That means increasing the power of your inner mind to make well-informed and tactical decisions much faster than you could plod through with your conscious mind. How is this done? It’s done by training your mind to recognize situations and come up with solutions very quickly. It depends partly upon Speed of Perception, but there is much more to it than that. It’s a matter of not just knowing what is going on, but deciding what to do about it. And all this must be done faster than you can think. Anything less than that will get you killed. We have drills for this aspect, too. The main one is what we call progressive sparring. Master Chien Dru invented it, himself, and there’s no better way to awaken this aspect of speed in your mind. Now, I have only touched on this aspect, but the superficial teaching is all that your mind can take at this point. Anything deeper right now would only confuse you.

“Speed of Deception is the fifth aspect. It means getting your movements going without stupid windups and useless motions that tell your enemy what you are going to do. Unlike most of the others, it’s a simple concept for the mind. On the other hand, it’s a very difficult concept to train into the body. But we have drills for that, too. And it goes farther than just the body. Speed of Deception, when conquered in the body then flows into the mind and spirit. It’s good enough to see the shocked reaction on an enemy’s face when he realizes far too late that you are swinging on him, but how much sweeter it is to never even give him the chance to react. When your mind and spirit can accomplish Speed of Deception by not giving away your physical movements, then you will have a precious treasure in your arsenal.

“Now Speed of Repetition means two separate things to us. First off, it means not wasting time between the individual strikes in a series. Secondly, it means not wasting time between any of your movements. And, guess what.”

“Uh, you have drills for this aspect?”

“Exactly. You’re going to love them. Second to last is Speed of Recovery, which means not hanging your arm out there like a slug when you deliver a strike. If your arm hangs like a dead tree limb then it is not ready to strike again, is it?”

“No, sir.”

“Of course not. And it leaves it out there for a stronger opponent to grab and use against you. You have to stay free and be ready at every moment. Not one fraction of the smallest instant must be given to the enemy. It all must be yours, or you will not prevail. Now I mention the folly of leaving an arm out there after a strike, but it is so for every movement. This is the essence of Speed of Recovery. Every single movement of your body, and your mind, I might add, must be recovered faster than instantly and readied for what must come next. It must be ready for anything. There must not be a single instant when you are slopped out there and unprepared.”

“Lastly is Speed of Mobility. But do not think it is last on the list because it is least in importance. Mobility lets you choose when and where the clash takes place. And it enables you to avoid the stronger attack and stab instantly into the weaker. Now, mobility is not just running around, which is important in its own way. No, mobility is also a matter of the postures of your body. It is the slip and dodge. It is the stance, steps and sway of the mantis for the gaining of relative positions to avoid the enemy’s weapons and to get yours into him. It is to not be where he wants you to be. It is to disappear from where he saw you. It is to make the ground your own and deny it to him.

“So there you have them: perception, initiation, change, decision, deception, repetition, recovery, and mobility. These are The Eight Aspects of Speed. You’re not going to remember most of what I have just told you, not consciously anyway, but the seeds are planted in your mind. Think about them. Meditate on them. Ask questions about them. Make them a part of you, and they will serve you well. Now let’s get some work done.”

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The book goes on through the training for these aspects of speed and nothing I have ever encountered in all my decades of learning and teaching martial arts comes close to the powerful ideas and training methods contained in this novel. I started out in my early years being slow. I usually made up for it with deception, but I took the mantis moves I had learned and made a form of them. It improved my speed a lot, but the speed research I did over the years did far more than that. In this book, I present that research on speed, which benefited me so much, to the reader.

Josh Young wrote:Personally i think there is no point in trying to master speed without trying to master stillness and slowness, and they seem a lot harder than speed is to master.

True, but stillness and slowness aren't much help when fists begin flying at your favorite face. Stillness and slowness are great for many things in the development of speed, and, I believe their greatest gift to speed is that they can help a person to relax. I don't think anything engenders speed more than relaxation, especially in the antagonistic muscles.

Relaxation also adds to efficiency and clean starts that do not telegraph... as you probably already know.

stillness has some great tactical advantages, for example punching a solid object destroys a fist or wrist, and a body can be rather solid or rather, solidified, at the right moment, or the reverse. Slowness is closely involved with increasing torque in some ways as well, and this does have some nice applications against different fast strikes

I don't punch any hard surface of the body, i use open palm, and have trained against hard surfaces like steel beams, but that reflects my own experience and observation.

for me speed is important in a different way, one that might contradict the teaching here, though it isn't per say at odds with it, that is being able to make a slow move end up very fast or a fast move end up very slow, according to reactionary principals dictated by the 'attacker'

but to get into guards good speed is essential, i use some basic drills to work on mine and i am sure that this is common to nearly all those who practice

i also love making my kicks fast, but i wonder if my energy is different, because i use momentum and relaxation in a way that allows me to whip my hips and use that to power kicks and arm strikes, as well as shoulder and elbow and throws etc, this motion basically flicks the limb out, i am not sure if it works on being fast as instructed above

another aspect of speed i consider important to note is how if a long object is moving with one end as the axis, then right by the axis the object is moving at a slow velocity (with high torque) and then the end of the object is moving with very high velocity (with low torque), this relates a lot to the use of a stick or sword and how there is a sweet spot for cutting that not only reflects the harmonic point of balance on the sword but also relates to the sturdy part of the motion of the cut itself

with the right slow motion you can telegraph a strike you won't do and then follow through with something completely different, but this is a common thing in CMA/Wushu, also it can be found in some boxing 'cheats' where a jab becomes an elbow. Speed is the key to this of course.

Have you every found that a point of diminished returns exists with speed? that there exists such a thing as a sacrifice of other aspects of technique for speed? It is the case in my experience that to be too fast is sometimes flawed and can lead to trouble, such as with fast retractions of limbs being followed back and not allowed to extend again, where the slow ones can deflect in a more active way and use 'sticky' energyi find it very hard to be my fastest without losing some of my 'stickiness'

Josh Young wrote:stillness has some great tactical advantages, for example punching a solid object destroys a fist or wrist, and a body can be rather solid or rather, solidified, at the right moment, or the reverse. Slowness is closely involved with increasing torque in some ways as well, and this does have some nice applications against different fast strikes

I don't punch any hard surface of the body, i use open palm, and have trained against hard surfaces like steel beams, but that reflects my own experience and observation.

for me speed is important in a different way, one that might contradict the teaching here, though it isn't per say at odds with it, that is being able to make a slow move end up very fast or a fast move end up very slow, according to reactionary principals dictated by the 'attacker'

but to get into guards good speed is essential, i use some basic drills to work on mine and i am sure that this is common to nearly all those who practice

i also love making my kicks fast, but i wonder if my energy is different, because i use momentum and relaxation in a way that allows me to whip my hips and use that to power kicks and arm strikes, as well as shoulder and elbow and throws etc, this motion basically flicks the limb out, i am not sure if it works on being fast as instructed above

another aspect of speed i consider important to note is how if a long object is moving with one end as the axis, then right by the axis the object is moving at a slow velocity (with high torque) and then the end of the object is moving with very high velocity (with low torque), this relates a lot to the use of a stick or sword and how there is a sweet spot for cutting that not only reflects the harmonic point of balance on the sword but also relates to the sturdy part of the motion of the cut itself

with the right slow motion you can telegraph a strike you won't do and then follow through with something completely different, but this is a common thing in CMA/Wushu, also it can be found in some boxing 'cheats' where a jab becomes an elbow. Speed is the key to this of course.

Have you every found that a point of diminished returns exists with speed? that there exists such a thing as a sacrifice of other aspects of technique for speed? It is the case in my experience that to be too fast is sometimes flawed and can lead to trouble, such as with fast retractions of limbs being followed back and not allowed to extend again, where the slow ones can deflect in a more active way and use 'sticky' energyi find it very hard to be my fastest without losing some of my 'stickiness'

I know what you are talking about. Wuji practices build good speed in their own way as well as power and sensitivity. Also my stickiness can be limited if my arms are over twitchy with speed. From contact though I can appear fast has I can hear my opponents movement and act almost before they do. Being fast is not limited to moving the body or arm fast but to being ahead of your opponent. Who was it who said to paraphernalia "When he is still I am still and when he moves I am already there"? That is speed as well although it is not directly how fast you move.

Yes, Mr. Young, you are so right that being "solid or rather, solidified," at the right moment is very useful. In fact, it is what makes speed useful, though it is the opposite of speed. Here is what I mean:

Speed is what gets your weapons to the target when the opportunity arises. The solidity is a great part of what makes them useful when they get there. Kinetic energy is mass times velocity squared. The two variables are mass and velocity, with velocity being squared, which makes velocity the far more important of the two variables. Considering a punch, you have to keep in mind that the main mass of the weapon is the fist and the arm, with the arm being a lesser part as it goes up toward the body and is only a lesser part of the velocity of the weapon.

As there will be no speed without relaxation, and the enemy is not going to wait around for a slow punch; your fist and arm MUST be relaxed, especially in the antagonistic muscles, as your whole body must be to some degree. But when your fist reaches the point of penetration into the target, relaxation in your weapon only makes it a mush ball and spreads out the force of the impact in space and time when it could be CONCENTRATED in both space and time. Except for certain kinds of strikes, such as Iron Palm and Tai Chi Barrel Punches, a relaxed fist mushing into a target is useless and dangerous to the hand.

But there is more to the change from relaxed to tense at the point of penetration:1. As stated above, the fist only has so much mass, but the body has lots of mass. One cannot move his body at the target over any distance with the speed of a punch. It is not possible, and, even if it were possible, this movement would cause unconsciousness and organ damage to the man accelerating and decelerating his entire body at the rate of a fast punch. However, by the sudden tension, or solidity, as you suggest, this mass of the entire body can be injected through the arm into the target at the prime instant of the punch. The body only moves a tiny bit and does not have to move as fast as the punch, so there is no danger. Often a slight twist of the body at the right instant adds it's inertial energy into the hit as well, but it takes the sudden tension replacing the relaxation of the swing.

Hitting in this way is like combining the mass of your entire body with the speed of your fist.E=M x V(squared).

2. It is impossible to have a perfect balance of Yin and Yang energies in a strike. Before you object, consider that I am saying PERFECT, as in ultimate perfection. Absolute perfection is not something we human beings normally do. But you cross over from the emptiness and softness (relaxation) of Yin in your punch to the fullness and hardness (tension) of Yang at the point of penetration, there is an instant of perfect balance that must naturally occur within that change. The key is to create the most total and instantaneous change you can at the critical time and place.

We have found that the key is to cross over from one extreme to the other, but for that to happen, there must BE extremes. Those who cannot relax and empty themselves enough to fully embrace Yin in the swing, cannot make a great crossover to Yang at the critical time and place, because Yang is already too present when it should not be. In other words; one cannot go from Yin to Yang when one is already Yang. Those who are already tense, are not only restricting their speed and their movement, not to mention their efficiency, but cannot inject the mass of their body into the great speed of their punch when it is critical to do so. And their punch is just going to be too slow because of antagonistic tension.

This concept is the beginning of what we do when we hit with our Waterfist.-------------------------------------------As to hitting the hard parts of the body (such as the skull) with your fist, it is totally doable with the right herbs and the right training. But most people do not train that way. Every one of our guys who have punched a person in the head in a street fight say that they could not feel the impact at all and could not follow up with another strike because their opponent's head snapped back too fast and he fell away from them too fast to get another hit in. They never had any pain whatsoever in their fists after the hit either. The only hard things on the enemy you do NOT want to hit are his teeth.

Your fists are beautiful things, my friend. Train them right and they will chew the enemy's bones for you.

CORRECTION - I failed to make this clear: "2. It is impossible to have a perfect balance of Yin and Yang energies in a strike."

I meant that it is impossible for us to WILLFULLY achieve true perfection of balance in ourselves. At some point while the forces cross over from one side to the other, they naturally have a point of perfect balance that we cannot even perceive. What we want is to have that natural point of perfection to occur at the right time. I know I am not articulating this very well, but we have seen the miraculous effects of it, as I am sure many of you have. Sorry I can't say it any better than that. Perhaps one of you can.

Windrider wrote:CORRECTION - I failed to make this clear: "2. It is impossible to have a perfect balance of Yin and Yang energies in a strike."

I meant that it is impossible for us to WILLFULLY achieve true perfection of balance in ourselves. At some point while the forces cross over from one side to the other, they naturally have a point of perfect balance that we cannot even perceive. What we want is to have that natural point of perfection to occur at the right time. I know I am not articulating this very well, but we have seen the miraculous effects of it, as I am sure many of you have. Sorry I can't say it any better than that. Perhaps one of you can.

I think this is what is talked about as being a soft hard strike. It sounds similar to White Crane and most Xing Yi as I understand the theory. My Xing Yi was shown without the last instant tension however but I have practised soft hard strikes when I was training white crane and other southern kung fu styles. Soft hard is an effective way of generating power wile protecting the body from damage. Its a very effective way of striking. Taiji is softer but it is harder to do right as I have found.

My Xing Yi was shown to me as soft but retaining the solidity throughout the soft movement. This is very hard to achieve to say the least but was really effective as many bruises can testify to. We used to hack down each others gates wile remaining totally soft but connected as the dropping motion is the easiest to connect, then rising with the body wile the hand drops in a kind of whip motion accelerating the arms further. We then moved on to a side parry/strike that really cut into the opponents arm. Its as you describe, the body moves but a short distance however it arrives with the arm. When all your energy arrives together you hit very hard. To keep the connection without tension was not easy. Always this is trained slowly with internal mechanics and breathing with a visualisation of force.

The instructor above has really good power and its an odd feeling to bounce off him even when he is being very soft. His interest is in the Wuji state. It is frustrating to be easily uprooted no matter what stance you take, it changed my perspective on practice a bit. Really its hard for the videos to do it justice as it needs to be felt. He has a lot of other projects and ideas but his ability is real. If done with a springy energy its very fast as its not over committed and flows wile remaining very hard to defend against. I have a long way to go.

as for fists, i find that i can strike more powerfully with open palm and can transmit kinetic force through them, but i cannot do this if i tense or make my arms solid at any point of the strike, instead i let the force ripple through them and transmit through the bones

i have trained a lot hitting a heavy bag with bare hands/fists, but i prefer training using trees and steel poles because they have specific resonant properties, so while i can strike a tree with open palm and with the sole of the foot and not have issues, i do have issues striking the tree with knuckles

i personally view punches as an inferior strike to palm strikes, but that is my view, i do use punches but like attacking fists with palmsthen again while a palm beats a fist a finger strike beat a palm and a fist beats a finger strike, so really it is all about context and there is no one strike that is best

I can put my fingers through cardboard using speed, i can also snap the tops off of weeds using a strike as well, like a weed wacker, i don't even want to test this type of speed on a live target

Windrider wrote:Here is an excerpt from Torin Feng - Book Five of The Dragons of Wulin that you may find interesting. The main character, Torin Feng, is studying at a southern praying mantis school. In this excerpt, his teacher is introducing him to the Eight Aspects of Speed.

I would like to read a discussion of speed from people outside my style.

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At length, he stopped and said, “You might think you have heard us talk a lot about speed, but you haven’t even begun to hear what you need to hear. The speed of your hands has increased, but you have no speed at all, as far as I’m concerned. I know that’s hard for you to hear, but speed is absolutely essential to us. Even the fastest war artists from other arts don’t understand our speed; perhaps even those from the other mantis schools. We are the fastest. For now, you only think of speed in one simple way, but there are Eight Aspects of Speed in our system.”

“Eight? I thought there were ten.”

“No. Eight. You are thinking of The Ten Concerns of the Mantis: speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, patience, precision, timing and perception. I am talking about the aspects of speed itself. The Eight Aspects of Speed are perception, initiation, change, decision, deception, repetition, recovery and mobility. Let me explain, because I know these terms mean nothing to your muddled little head.”

“Speed of Perception means, at the first level, seeing the enemy’s movement at its beginning. It means understanding that movement and its potential without letting your mind fixate on it. By not fixating, I mean just observing the totality of what is, and not believing that it cannot change. Anyway, Speed of Perception is important to battle because it tells you what is going on, and does so much faster than your conscious mind can think.

“Speed of Initiation means bringing your movements up to full speed in the first quarter inch of movement. Most fighters only achieve their full speed at the very end of their swing. What a waste. What a stupid, useless waste! It’s nothing but lazy effort that makes them so slow.” He grabbed the front of my tunic with one hand and shook me as he said, “Whatever speed you can achieve, get it in the first quarter inch of movement or don’t bother to swing at all! Do you hear me?”

“Yes,” I said, trying not to look as frightened as I felt.

“Letting go, he said, “There’s nothing I hate worse than lazy, sloppy efforts... even in my enemies.” After thinking for a bit, he continued, “Anyway, your efforts to achieve your full speed in the first quarter inch will vastly increase your full speed. Do you understand this?”

“Yes, sir.”

“But do you fully understand it?”

“No, sir.”

“Good answer. I’m glad you didn’t make me smack you for a stupid answer.” Then he laughed and said, “I’m sorry. Talking about that aspect of speed always gets my blood up.” He counted on his fingers, saying, “Let’s see, perception, initiation, oh, Speed of Change is next. Speed of Change means controlling your inertia and balance in order to be able to change your movements at an instant’s notice. No plan survives initial contact with the enemy. So you have to be able to change your efforts very quickly, or you will be caught off guard. Or you will be tricked and caught flat-footed. The basic first step on the path to Speed of Change is relaxation. See? Even now you are tensed up. I see it in your shoulders. I see it in your eyes. Yes, even in your mind you are tensed up. That’s why this great teaching is hard for you. Your mind and body are hard and stiff, so you cannot adapt to this new idea. But don’t worry your tensed-up little mind. We have drills that will cause you to learn.” He laughed and added, “Oh, yes. You will very much want to learn when that time comes.

“Next is Speed of Decision. That means increasing the power of your inner mind to make well-informed and tactical decisions much faster than you could plod through with your conscious mind. How is this done? It’s done by training your mind to recognize situations and come up with solutions very quickly. It depends partly upon Speed of Perception, but there is much more to it than that. It’s a matter of not just knowing what is going on, but deciding what to do about it. And all this must be done faster than you can think. Anything less than that will get you killed. We have drills for this aspect, too. The main one is what we call progressive sparring. Master Chien Dru invented it, himself, and there’s no better way to awaken this aspect of speed in your mind. Now, I have only touched on this aspect, but the superficial teaching is all that your mind can take at this point. Anything deeper right now would only confuse you.

“Speed of Deception is the fifth aspect. It means getting your movements going without stupid windups and useless motions that tell your enemy what you are going to do. Unlike most of the others, it’s a simple concept for the mind. On the other hand, it’s a very difficult concept to train into the body. But we have drills for that, too. And it goes farther than just the body. Speed of Deception, when conquered in the body then flows into the mind and spirit. It’s good enough to see the shocked reaction on an enemy’s face when he realizes far too late that you are swinging on him, but how much sweeter it is to never even give him the chance to react. When your mind and spirit can accomplish Speed of Deception by not giving away your physical movements, then you will have a precious treasure in your arsenal.

“Now Speed of Repetition means two separate things to us. First off, it means not wasting time between the individual strikes in a series. Secondly, it means not wasting time between any of your movements. And, guess what.”

“Uh, you have drills for this aspect?”

“Exactly. You’re going to love them. Second to last is Speed of Recovery, which means not hanging your arm out there like a slug when you deliver a strike. If your arm hangs like a dead tree limb then it is not ready to strike again, is it?”

“No, sir.”

“Of course not. And it leaves it out there for a stronger opponent to grab and use against you. You have to stay free and be ready at every moment. Not one fraction of the smallest instant must be given to the enemy. It all must be yours, or you will not prevail. Now I mention the folly of leaving an arm out there after a strike, but it is so for every movement. This is the essence of Speed of Recovery. Every single movement of your body, and your mind, I might add, must be recovered faster than instantly and readied for what must come next. It must be ready for anything. There must not be a single instant when you are slopped out there and unprepared.”

“Lastly is Speed of Mobility. But do not think it is last on the list because it is least in importance. Mobility lets you choose when and where the clash takes place. And it enables you to avoid the stronger attack and stab instantly into the weaker. Now, mobility is not just running around, which is important in its own way. No, mobility is also a matter of the postures of your body. It is the slip and dodge. It is the stance, steps and sway of the mantis for the gaining of relative positions to avoid the enemy’s weapons and to get yours into him. It is to not be where he wants you to be. It is to disappear from where he saw you. It is to make the ground your own and deny it to him.

“So there you have them: perception, initiation, change, decision, deception, repetition, recovery, and mobility. These are The Eight Aspects of Speed. You’re not going to remember most of what I have just told you, not consciously anyway, but the seeds are planted in your mind. Think about them. Meditate on them. Ask questions about them. Make them a part of you, and they will serve you well. Now let’s get some work done.”

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The book goes on through the training for these aspects of speed and nothing I have ever encountered in all my decades of learning and teaching martial arts comes close to the powerful ideas and training methods contained in this novel. I started out in my early years being slow. I usually made up for it with deception, but I took the mantis moves I had learned and made a form of them. It improved my speed a lot, but the speed research I did over the years did far more than that. In this book, I present that research on speed, which benefited me so much, to the reader.